Our daughter wants to study design. Foundations and Route B applications have been mentioned. Can you explain about art and design applications?

Some applications for art and design have a different application process from other university or college courses. Some degree courses want students to have the grounding of an art foundation course before they start a degree. Art foundation courses are available at colleges across the country. Although they are listed on this website, applications have to be made direct to the colleges themselves.

Some art and design degree and HND courses operate through Route B, which is a slightly different system to our normal cycle (referred to as Route A). Route B is part of the UCAS process but it operates later than the normal application system. This is because it needs to accommodate foundation students in particular, who are not ready to apply earlier (the application deadline is 24 March). Applicants can use three of their five UCAS choices for Route B courses. They put their choices in order of preference.

Initially only the first choice gets the application and it only moves on to the second choice if the first is unsuccessful or your son or daughter declines the offer. Therefore, making the right decisions in terms of preference is very important.

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